Grievances of surgeons, Indian Medical Service.

Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Grievances of surgeons, Indian Medical Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/36 (page 9)
    generally then with only an officiating appointment' In contrast to this, read now what is to be found in the Blue-book respecting medical officers in India, presented to Parliament in 1881. At page 2S7 occur these words, alike admirable with the memo, above referred to for their remarkable coincidence with truth It will be found that an officer almost invariably obtains offici- ating or permanent employment about two years after his arrival in India. With these words I now leave the subject of the pro- mises and performances of the India Office, merely remarking that it is difficult to understand why an advertisement was issued from the said office on the 4th January last, stating there were vacancies for Jive surgeons, when it is well known there are 30 or 40 more men in Bengal alone than the authorities know how to dispose of. It is incumbent, therefore, for all of the junior members to better themselves, but I am sorry that I cannot agree with Crcesus in supporting the Indian Medical_Defence Fund for that purpose, and for the following reasons :—The Fund has done but little for the junior members of our service ; on the contrary, it has tended, with the memo, issued from the India Office, to tempt men into it. For the circular issued from the committee in September, 1881, deliberately states that the system known as unemployed pay for junior officers \s abolished or modified. Such a statement either implies gross and culpable ignorance of facts or is a wilful misstatement, or shows signs of wavering in fighting for the abolition of this our greatest and most annoying ;?rievance. Further on the circular even has the hardihood to state that the committee are of opinion that the Government on this and other points have granted as much as could be reasonably expected. The Government have granted nothing except abolishing unem- ployed pay in certain cases on field service, which abolition was granted before the Defence Fund came into existence. The system is certainly not abolished : it may be modified, for it is certainly more rife at the present time than at any other period of the service. Again I would draw attention to the balance sheet